Before we moved into our house, I knew I wanted a board and batten wall. When looking at our nursery, it made the most sense to put it on one of the walls in that room. Once we found out the gender of our twins, we began working on our DIY project!
The tricky thing about sharing how to do this project is that no one is going to have the same measurements as the next person. I will share the basic measurements that we used, but you’ll have to figure out what look you prefer in your room + how the boards will fit properly in there (don’t worry, I’ll share a website on how to space the boards!)
Supplies Needed
1×4 boards (we used select pine)
Level
Tape Measure
Liquid Nails
Nail Gun + Nails
Caulk + Caulk Gun
Wood Filler + Putty Knife
Sandpaper
Paint + painting accessories (I personally like THIS brush for edges, and THESE rollers are nice for painting the boards)
Measurements
First, we started off with our blank canvas. I had Ben hold up the boards at different heights to help me decide how high I wanted the board and batten to be. For reference, our ceilings are 8 feet tall and the board and batten is 6 feet tall.
Tip: if you don’t have someone to help hold anything up for you to visualize the height or you need a better idea to help you visualize, you can take painters tape and mark out lines. This is probably a better idea than just eyeballing it anyways ha!
After figuring out how high we wanted the board and batten, we then determined the spacing between the boards. I found THIS website to be really helpful. What you do is you add the width of your walls, width of the boards, and then how many panels you want. Then it will calculate the exact measurements in between the boards and where they’ll go on the wall. This is really helpful and takes away having to do any sort of complicated math, which is always nice in my book.
Tip: we switched around the number of panels a few times to see what we liked best. Originally we were going to do seven panels but then realized we’d have to put a board over an outlet. We then tried six panels on the website and checked the measurements of that. We were able to avoid the outlet and made the project much easier.
We figured out all of the measurements of everything and then Ben began working on the cut list. After he was done with that, we headed out to Home Depot! When shopping for the boards, definitely compare the pricing of the different sizes. We were originally going to get 12 foot boards, but two 6 foot boards were actually a better deal. And with the way lumber prices are now, this was an easy way to save some money.
We got all of our supplies and were ready to head back home and get started!
Installing the Boards
Since Ben already had the cut list made, he began cutting the boards once we got home. When they were all cut, he began installing! He put liquid nails on the back of the board, then secured the board with nails. First he did the bottom board, which butted up to our trim. There is a little bit of an overhang but it doesn’t bother us. After the bottom board is put up, we began adding the vertical boards.
Tip: When we figured out the measurements between the boards, Ben cut two spacers (one for the top, one for the bottom) so it was easy to get the boards in the correct place.
Ben installed the top board after all of the vertical boards were in place. If you have all of the wood cut before you start installing everything, putting them up goes really quickly.
Wood Filler
Fill all of the holes and seams with wood filler. Once it’s dried (according to what the package says), sand it down so it’s all smooth and even.
Caulking
It’s important to caulk where the wood meets the wall. We used paintable caulk that was made for moldings and trims. If you haven’t done this before, I found THIS video to be helpful.
Painting
Once everything is cured, it’s time to paint! I decided to go with Americana Egg by Magnolia in an eggshell finish.
And there we have it! This was such a simple project that makes such a difference. Stay tuned as we continue to put this nursery together for our boys!
